Sunday 18th May 2025
Acts 11: 1-18
Psalm 24: 1-6
Revelation 21: 1-6
St. John 13: 31-35
“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and
do not swear deceitfully.” Psalm 24: 3-4
When in an Anglican parish in England or Wales, the Opening Greeting by the priest is, “The Lord be with you.” The congregation always responds the same way, “And also with you…” There is a story, though, that one Sunday, the public address system of the parish church wasn’t working. Frustrated, the priest said, “There is something wrong with this mike…” The congregation couldn’t hear him, but they knew the customary response, so they replied, “And also with you…”
We Anglicans take for granted that when we gather together, the way we worship has a particular shape or form… To take an obvious example, first the scriptures are proclaimed, and then the sermon follows – for the primary job of the preacher is to help the congregation understand and apply the Word of God…
There are more subtle examples of why we worship the way we do – for example, it is after our prayer of confession and the pronouncement of forgiveness (absolution), that we have the Exchange of the Peace. The time for the Exchange of the Peace is not to talk about the weather: The Exchange of the Peace demonstrates that we know that we are reconciled with God and with one another – and that comes after a prayer of humble confession, when we our hearts are pure before Almighty God…
How did our worship get this common shape?… It is a combination of our Jewish inheritance, the words of scripture, the practice of the ancient tradition of the Church, and reforms over time. (For example, our worship is no longer in Latin, because most people do not speak the Latin language any more)…
It isn’t only Christians who have a liturgical shape to the way they worship together. Jewish believers have a certain form to their common worship… Today’s psalm selection is an example of this. Psalm 24 is ascribed to King David. We understand that Psalm 24 was said at the entrance of the temple, around the threshold of the door. It likely went like this:
Worshipper: The earth is the Lord and all that is in it; the world and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers. (vv. 1-2)
Priest (or another leader): Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? (v. 3)
Worshipper: Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully. (v. 4ff.)
The liturgy continues by the ark of the covenant, the throne of the invisible God: Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors! That the King of glory may come in. (v. 7ff.)
So, we see that Jewish worship had a particular form or shape – a liturgy – just as our common worship has a liturgical shape today…
Let’s focus in on the question-and-answer in verses 3 and 4:
Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully.
What is needed to stand in God’s holy place? We need to have clean hands (that is, clean behaviour) and pure hearts – not to go in the direction of falsehood, nor to be misleading in what we say…
For our Jewish ancestors, and through the history of the Church, to engage deeply in worship, there needs to be purity in our hearts and lives… If we are going through the motions or mumbling with our lips, but without changed hearts and pure lives, our worship does not honour God…
Amos, a prophet of the Lord in the 8th century before the birth of Jesus, lived during a time when God’s people were outwardly very religious, but they were not faithful to the Lord their God. There were terrible social injustices. Hear the words of God’s rage, spoken through Amos, from chapter 5:
Ah, you who turn justice to wormwood
and bring righteousness to the ground!…
They hate the one who reproves in the gate,
and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.
Therefore because you trample on the poor
and take from them levies of grain… For I know how many are your transgressions
and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe and push aside the needy in the gate.
Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.
Seek good and not evil, that you may live,
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said.
Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. (v. 7, 10-11a, 12-15)
So, for our worship to honour God, there needs to be a purity in our hearts and in our lives. We are to seek God’s righteousness, God’s holiness, and to live in response to God’s presence…
This does not mean that Christians are supposed to be delicate flowers! We need to develop a certain toughness, ready to do God’s work even when it’s challenging… But the toughness should not be in our hearts. We need to have soft hearts, moulded by the Spirit of the Lord. Yet, we carry God’s authority humbly in what we do and in what we say…
God’s righteousness matters. How we live in response to God’s righteousness – matters…
In the second reading this morning, from Revelation 21, there is this marvellous image of the union of our Lord with his people at the end of days. The image is that of a bride and a bridegroom on their wedding day. Christ is the Bridegroom. We, the Church of God, are the Bride:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Now, I am blessed to have the most amazing job – that of being a parish priest… I’ve officiated at a lot of weddings… Without exception, the brides work really hard to get ready for that glorious day! They’re radiantly beautiful. There is such love. There is such commitment. There is such unity. That’s a wonderful picture of the unity with Christ that you and I will one day participate in, by the grace of God… The marriage commitment is a reflection of our spiritual commitment to Christ…
We might note, however, that the framers of this lectionary ended the reading at Revelation 21: 6… But 2 verses later, verse 8 has a warning for God’s Church: Those who are spiritually unfaithful, those who are polluted by all kinds of sin, are in grave risk of being separated for ever from this glorious heavenly fellowship… God is righteous. With God’s help, we need to take on God’s righteousness, God’s priorities…
We don’t earn God’s righteousness. (We cannot earn our way to heaven.) It is a free gift, from a loving, gracious God. We are responsible for daring to opening our hearts and lives to our Saviour – daring to say “Yes” to the heavenly banquet we will one day share…
Let’s take God’s righteousness seriously. Let’s learn to leave behind the garbage of sin, and to embrace the life which never ends. Like the Jewish worshippers at the entrance of the temple, let us respond to the question, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?” – saying together, “Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully…”
Amen.